I Love our Front 7

We have 4 starting caliber DTs. Branch and Siliga are run stuffers. Brown is a run stuffer with some pass rush skill, and Easley can be a disruptive force. Chris Jones will probably never see the field, but we have seen his pass rush ability too.
We have 3 starting caliber DEs. Jones, Nink and Sheard are all above average DEs.
We have 3 probowl caliber LBs.
I think that Grissom ends up at LB as the depth.
I think this can be the best(up to Brown and Easley to get it there) and it is almost certainly the deepest front 7 in the NFL.

It is not common to think you can lose Vince Wilfork and still upgrade the defensive front. But I think they have.

No wonder BB has been so cheerful during the last few media sessions.

+ Trey Flowers

All of the defensive ends can also kick inside for even more disruption along the line and we've seen what all 3 of the LB's are capable of on blitzes, we probably have the best A-Gap blitzer in the NFL in Collins.

This front is versatile.

It's the "P" word that's killing me. Potential, potential, potential. The talent is there, now put the work in and do what we've all seen you do on an individual basis, together. I trust the coaches to make this front 7 among the best. Too much talent for it not to be,

All they while they are getting younger, faster and more athletic... I like what BB has for a vision, Matt P. will be able to utilize a swiss army jackknife approach with his defense...

Remember Zach Moore last year??.. another potential guy.

AndyJohnson said:

We have 4 starting caliber DTs. Branch and Siliga are run stuffers. Brown is a run stuffer with some pass rush skill, and Easley can be a disruptive force. Chris Jones will probably never see the field, but we have seen his pass rush ability too.
We have 3 starting caliber DEs. Jones, Nink and Sheard are all above average DEs.
We have 3 probowl caliber LBs.
I think that Grissom ends up at LB as the depth.
I think this can be the best(up to Brown and Easley to get it there) and it is almost certainly the deepest front 7 in the NFL.

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Strangely, at this point I think Mayo may be the most expendable. He's always made a lot of tackles, but most are after 4-5 yard gains.

PatriotsReign said:

Strangely, at this point I think Mayo may be the most expendable. He's always made a lot of tackles, but most are after 4-5 yard gains.

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That's what he was supposed to do, Mayo's last healthy seasons weren't playing behind all star defensive fronts, DL gets blown up, Mayo forced to play safe and clean up. And he was always there to clean up.

It's not looking good for Jake Bequette.

strngplyr said:

That's what he was supposed to do, Mayo's last healthy seasons weren't playing behind all star defensive fronts, DL gets blown up, Mayo forced to play safe and clean up. And he was always there to clean up.

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Mayo just isn't a classic middle or inside LB. And their job isn't to make tackles 4-5 yards deep. They're supposed to fill the gap created by DL and stop the run at the LOS.

I just don't think he has the size to be a run stopper. He's a great leader, but nothing like Luke Kuechly, but then again not many are.

If we had to trade either Mayo or Collins, I'd keep Collins.

PatriotsReign said:

Mayo just isn't a classic middle or inside LB. And their job isn't to make tackles 4-5 yards deep. They're supposed to fill the gap created by DL and stop the run at the LOS.

I just don't think he has the size to be a run stopper. He's a great leader, but nothing like Luke Kuechly, but then again not many are.

If we had to trade either Mayo or Collins, I'd keep Collins.

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I guess Ray Lewis was playing his position the wrong way.

I'm sure BB and Patricia will try to dial up a lot of versatility-exploiting disguise from this group. I hope they succeed, especially since the DBs may be restricted, talent-wise, to more vanilla schemes.

Fencer said:

It's not looking good for Jake Bequette.

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Is he...still on the team? Wild.

Love the front 7. Teams win in the trenches.

Although, I'm still concerned about our DB's...but maybe BB's strategy is to just kill the QB?

Fencer said:

I guess Ray Lewis was playing his position the wrong way.

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You're kidding right? Lewis stuffed the run at the los all the time.

I played inside LB in high school (not that I'm an expert) and I hated if I froze and waited for the running back to get to my level before I tackled him.

Maybe now that our D line will be improved, we'll see Mayo stuff the run more often. So let's wait and see.

AndyJohnson said:

We have 4 starting caliber DTs. Branch and Siliga are run stuffers. Brown is a run stuffer with some pass rush skill, and Easley can be a disruptive force. Chris Jones will probably never see the field, but we have seen his pass rush ability too.
We have 3 starting caliber DEs. Jones, Nink and Sheard are all above average DEs.
We have 3 probowl caliber LBs.
I think that Grissom ends up at LB as the depth.
I think this can be the best(up to Brown and Easley to get it there) and it is almost certainly the deepest front 7 in the NFL.

Click to expand...

Seems to me, when you can bring the pressure up front, you don't really need to have $20 million in CBs behind you

And with $20 million in DBs you can also say goodbye to at least a few of the guys one has in their front 7

There's still some QBs to watch out for in the AFC that the Pats will have to play to make it to the SB but I think Belichick will have a good bend but don't break zone D (anchored by McCourty) and while Vince is a loss, one has to factor in that he was at most one year from being replaced and likely couldn't have kept handling the same level of snaps

So I heartily endorse Belichick's approach as well - and opposing OC's are really going to have to re-write their prep books when it comes to playing the Pats this year

rookBoston said:

It is not common to think you can lose Vince Wilfork and still upgrade the defensive front. But I think they have.

No wonder BB has been so cheerful during the last few media sessions.

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Vince seemed to regain some of the energy of days gone past in the last season - surprising me and a lot of other people

I just tend to think that he's really not going to be able to sustain that this season, and will be "just" a decent run stopping role player this season or next

So I agree - Vince is a loss AND they got better

Great OP. These pickups at DE/OLB are critical to helping Rob Ninkovich and Chandler Jones from wearing down in individual games and throughout the season.

A great front 7 can hide a mediocre secondary

Fencer said:

It's not looking good for Jake Bequette.

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It's NEVER looking good for Jake Bequette...just don't count out the Arkansas Freddie Krueger. Everyone KNOWS he's got pictures or inside dirt on BB.

PatriotsReign said:

You're kidding right? Lewis stuffed the run at the los all the time.

I played inside LB in high school (not that I'm an expert) and I hated if I froze and waited for the running back to get to my level before I tackled him.

Maybe now that our D line will be improved, we'll see Mayo stuff the run more often. So let's wait and see.

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Stuffs 1st 7 years.

Ray Lewis 97 games. 12 Stuffs

Jerod Mayo 87 games - 19 stuffs

PatsFanInMaine said:

Stuffs 1st 7 years.

Ray Lewis 97 games. 12 Stuffs

Jerod Mayo 87 games - 19 stuffs

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I call bullsh*t....

Lol...please tell us you're not putting Mayo in Lewis' category. I think there are plenty of linebackers active that are much better than Mayo....but that's just an opinion.

Got any "number of stuffs" links?

Anyone that disagrees is going to have provide proof.

A couple of popular NFL sites have Mayo ranked #11 and #12 among linebackers. Granted that's pretty good, but he's coming off a major injury so we'll have to wait.

http://www.fftoday.com/rankings/playerrank.php?o=2&PosID=60

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000364362/article/luke-kuechly-tops-2014-list-of-nfls-best-lbs